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To Edgar A Poe Esq
Dr Sir,
This is a world of presumption. I first presumed, mentally, that you were the author of the Barrett criticism in [the] Broadway Journal. I then presumed, morally, or rather immorally to say so in print. And I am pleasantly punished for my sins by a complimentary fillip — if I presume rightly again, from Mr Poe — in the Evening Mirror. But he has mistaken the Tribune for the Morning News which E A D regrets as there are excellent anonymous literary articles in the former paper (said to be written by Miss S M Fuller and W E Channing) which he may unjustly get the credit of. Will Mr Poe take the trouble to correct the matter by stating Morning News for Tribune.
I enclose you the Weekly News which contains a few matter of fact paragraphs on the “Waif” that may serve as a prose foot note to your subtle criticism of the same volume.
Yours respectfully
E. A. D.
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Notes:
The text for this letter comes from a notebook in the Duyckinck Collection of the New York Public Library. The date of January 17 or 18, 1845 is assigned by James B. Reece in his dissertation on Poe and the New York Literati (1954), based on the fact that the article mentioned by Duyckinck appeared in the Evening Mirror of January 17, 1845.
S. M. Fuller was Sarah Margaret Fuller. W. E. Channing was William Ellery Channing. E. A. D. was Evert Augustus Duyckinck.
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[S:0 - MS, 18xx] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Misc - Letters - E. A. Duyckinck to Poe (RCL517a)